Friday, January 22, 2016

Book review by Hayden B. Peake

Intelligence Analysis and Reporting

The State Department formed the Secret Intelligence Bureau (SIB) in 1916 to
deal with cases of pass-port fraud linked to espionage. The SIB has since gone
through several reorganizations and is today called the Bureau of Diplomatic
Security (BDS). Retired special agent Robert Booth spent 28 years with the BDS
working cases overseas and domestically. State Department
Counterintelligence reviews his career and the BDS history with emphasis
on three of the major cases with which he was involved.

The first case he discusses concerns retired State Department officer
Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn, whose affection for Fidel Castro and
Cuba led them to become Cuban moles. Kendall is now serving life without parole
in a supermax facility; Gwendolyn received an 81-month sentence. Booth tells
how he was brought out of retirement as a consultant to BDS in 2003 and ended,
up working the case with the FBI. It is a thorough treatment, hiding none of
the frustrations endured or tradecraft complexities.

The Taiwanese Femme Fatale, or the case of Donald William Keyser, is the
second case Booth discusses. Keyser was principal deputy assistant secretary of
state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs and became involved with Isabelle
Cheng; “a young, female, Taiwanese clandestine intelligence officer.” (p. 81)
He also kept top secret CIA documents at home. (p. 157) Keyser served a short
term in prison, but did not lose his pension; Isabelle went on to pursue her
doctorate in England. How BDS solved the case and why Keyser was treated so
leniently by the judge makes interesting reading.

Operation Sacred Ibis, the third case Booth examines, is still in some ways
unsolved. The KGB planted a “high quality transmitter in a seventh floor
conference room” (p. 279) in the State Department. Booth reveals how it was
discovered and describes some strange post-Cold War security procedures
regarding unescorted foreign diplomatic access that may have contributed to its
installation. But if it is known just how the SVR did it, Booth isn’t saying.
The one benefit was that they found the device—an actuator—that caused the
transmitter to function. The details of this device are interesting.

Booth also includes a section on leak cases that reveals how they are
treated. It is rather depressing, not because they weren’t all solved) but
because they occur so often and some leakers are not disciplined even when
caught. Booth speculates that those may have been “authorized.” (p. 250)

State Department Counterintelligence is an interesting and
worthwhile account of a relatively unknown organization that shows why it
exists) and where it fits in the Intelligence Community.

[1] Hayden Peake, “Intelligence Officer
Bookshelf,” The Intelligencer: Journal of U. S. Intelligence Stuidies
(21, 2, Spring/Summer 2015, p. 127 )Hayden Peake is the
Curator of the CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection. He has served in the
Directorate of Science and Technology and the Directorate of Operations. Most
of his reviews cited have appeared in recent unclassified editions of ClA’s
Studies in Intelligence. These and many other reviews and articles may be found
online at http://www.cia.gov

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